Promise of extra ferries sunk as operators back out

Jacob Saulwick

FOUR months after the Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, promised four new ferry routes to be offered by the private sector, three of them have fallen over.

The collapse means one of the few concrete transport initiatives offered by the O'Farrell government never got a chance to start. And it means ferry commuters in the lower north shore, inner west and eastern suburbs will miss out on an extra five services a day because the company that said it would deliver them could not.

"I encourage other operators to have a look at the openings on Sydney Harbour to see if they can develop viable new routes" ... Gladys Berejiklian. Photo: James Alcock

In August, Ms Berejiklian and the Ports Minister, Duncan Gay, offered wharf access to private companies if they could derive new routes and run them at no cost to the taxpayer.

In November, Ms Berejiklian announced two companies - Manly Fast Ferry and Sydney Fast Ferries - had won rights to offer four routes.

Manly Fast Ferry would run a service between Manly, Milsons Point and Darling Harbour. That service began in January.

Sydney Fast Ferries would run the other three in the inner harbour, from Kirribilli, Rose Bay, Balmain, Woolwich, Milsons Point, Pyrmont, Greenwich Point and Birchgrove.

Advertisement

"This is great news for ferry passengers who will now have more services and an expanded range of routes from which to choose," Ms Berejiklian said at the time, and talked about the ''next stage'' of ferry reform.

"This is about giving customers more options … offering the private sector a chance to demonstrate what can be achieved,'' said the minister, who will privatise Sydney's government ferry fleet by year's end.

But Sydney Fast Ferries was not able to organise the services, despite telling the Herald last month services should start in March.

And the government yesterday confirmed the company's wharf access rights would be offered to other companies.

Ms Berejiklian said yesterday: ''I encourage other operators to have a look at the openings on Sydney Harbour to see if they can develop viable new routes.''

The government had not lost money on the failure, she said.

The collapse of the promised inner harbour routes comes amid a fierce struggle between the two companies, Sydney Fast Ferries and Manly Fast Ferry, who compete on runs between Manly and Circular Quay.

The managing director of Manly Fast Ferry, Richard Ford, told the Herald yesterday he had offered to buy Sydney Fast Ferries last week.

''We offered an interest in his contract,'' Mr Ford said of his counterpart at Sydney Fast Ferries, John McPherson. ''If he wanted to sell the boats we'd buy them off him,'' Mr Ford said.

Mr McPherson could not be contacted yesterday.

When Ms Berejiklian announced the services in November, one ferry enthusiast, Graeme Taylor, of Action for Public Transport, said the routes made sense but high ticket prices and a lack of integration with other forms of transport would deter customers.

''These services are not as attractive to passengers as services operated by Sydney Ferries,'' Mr Taylor said. ''There is a reasonable to high chance that these services will fail.''